CHAPTEH XVII. 



Signs of a severe Winter The Little Auk or Auklet The Gadwall Falcons being trained 

 by the Prussians to intercept the Paris Carrier Pigeons Ballooning The King of 

 Prussia's Piety John Forster Solar Eclipse of 22d December 1870 The Government 

 and the Eclipse Large Solar Spots Visible to the naked eye Rev. Dr. Gumming 

 November Meteors. 



IT must have been in view of some such, scene [November 1870] as 

 the early morning presents to the eye at present that Horace began 

 his celebrated ode to Augustus 



" Jam satis terris nivis, atque dirae 

 Grandinis misit Pater "- 



Enough, enough of snow and direful hail ! Or if you prefer the 

 wintry scene in the ninth Ode 



" Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum 

 Soracte, nee jam sustineant onus 

 Sylvse laborantes : geluque 

 Flumina constiterint acuto ? " 



Which our countryman Theodore Martin thus renders 



" Look out, my Thaliarchus, round ! 



Soracte's crest is white with snow, 

 The drooping branches sweep the ground, 

 And, fast in icy fetters bound, 



The streams have ceased to flow. " 



The snow-clad Soracte itself could not wear a colder or wintrier 

 aspect than does our own Ben Nevis at this moment. We have, in 

 truth, had a great deal of sleet and snow and rattling hail showers 

 of late, with bitterly cold winds and frost enough to induce one to 

 don his warmest habiliments when venturing abroad, and thoroughly 



